Highland Park — It’s been 35 years since Chicano muralist Frank Romero painted “Going to the Olympics” — a celebration of the city’s car culture — that spreads for more than 100 feet across a wall on the 101 Freeway in Downtown. Now, a new, smaller mural inspired in part by the same piece is to be recreated on a municipal parking lot in Highland Park.

The city’s Cultural Affairs Commission has approved supporting and partially funding the new mural, called “Going to the Olympics, Again.”

The project –a mural of palm stress, cars and heart-shapes — will cost a total of $40,000, according to Felicia Filer, public art division director from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). For redoing it, the city would contribute $5,000 in Council Civic Funds and $5,000 in mural funding. The rest of the funding would come from private donations.

The mural – measuring eight feet by 35 feet – would go up on the southeast side of Municipal Parking Lot 638, along South Avenue 58. This would help replace murals on city-owned lots that were painted over after they had become heavily tagged by graffiti, Filer said.

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